Honestly, I’d have loved to have started the year with something really appropriate for the beginning of the academic year, such as how to not get lost in the John Percival building, or how many times you can rewatch Gilmore Girls in one semester without skipping lectures.
However, we are living in a world where you can be learning at a university level and still unable to comprehend the concept of consent.
Consequently, it seems more important to remind students, both freshers and final years, of the support that is out there.
I have spoken with Time to Act, a student-led campaign fighting against sexual misconduct within our university and beyond, to ensure as many avenues for support as possible are available.
Within the university, there is the Student Support Intervention Team, who provide non-judgemental 1:1 sessions to discuss support, such as access to external services, or information on the reporting process.
This service is available during office hours from Monday to Friday, via Report and Support. Externally, New Pathways is a charitable organisation who offer specialist therapeutic support to victims of sexual trauma through in-person, online, or telephone services.
Other local help involves the Ynys Saff Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) which provides both access to counselling and forensic medical testing.
Further, BAWSO provides support for minority ethnic victims of domestic or sexual abuse.
Cardiff Women’s Aid is devoted to assisting women, through advice and counselling, as well as offering refuge for women fleeing from domestic abuse. This organisation has a helpline which is open all day, every day.
Reaching out for support can be a challenging decision, but luckily Cardiff is brimming with teams so that when you’re ready, you won’t be grasping at darkness.
Time to Act was quick to provide me with a list of things that can still be done within our university to prevent acts of sexual violence occurring.
Firstly, consent and bystander training must be imperative for students. There is a module of Learning Central outlining the laws of consent for those who are unsure; it is essential not to neglect this resource or play fast and loose with these laws.
Other recommendations included a zero-tolerance approach to sexual violence (which should be obvious) and challenging the norms that allow rape culture to continue, by dismantling the behaviour that lets it fester in silence.
What struck me most, though, was the call for survivor-centered reporting systems.
In 2023, a Cardiff University student who was a victim of sexual assault called for more visible support stating “you need to be spoon fed. When you’ve just been sexually assaulted, your brain is like a puddle of mush”.
Time to Act bolstered this plea by not only agreeing that the university should make support more apparent on campus, but also urging that survivors receive more guidance during the reporting process, since being left to navigate difficult systems poses the risk of retraumatising them.
Upon first approaching an article on ‘how we can keep safe from sexual assault’, I worried I would be writing a fruitless step-bystep guide on rules, such as not walking home alone at night.
Time to Act pointed out that everyone already knows how to keep safe and constantly reminding people of these measures only creates an avenue for the victim to be blamed when something happens.
The central focus should be on what predators do: “It’s not [the victim’s] fault; it’s the perpetrator’s fault. It’s always the perpetrator’s”.
Illustrations: Charlotte Henderson